Tuesday, February 14, 2012

3 Step, $3 Infinity Scarf

First things first: Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts (and your gratuitous, giggle-inducing compliments) on my blogging identity crisis post. I really felt a little confused about why I’m blogging in the first place and what (if anything) I should be focusing on, and you guys gave me a great reminder of what I’m doing here: sharing my passions, my thoughts, my hobbies, and my everyday, real, unglamourized (not a real word) life so we can connect and laugh and be inspired and improve ourselves together. The consensus of thought in the comments seems to be that while we all enjoy a good crochet/craft post, most of you seem to just enjoy having a good ol’ internet buddy that you can chuckle and commiserate and create with. And I love being that buddy. So I hereby resolve to never again waste time worrying about what I should be writing, or meeting anyone’s expectations, or keeping up with Susie Blogger over there with her daily inspirational words of wisdom and groundbreaking tutorials and 50,000 diehard fans. If I feel like crafting, craft post. If I feel like whining, whiny post. If I feel like showing off pictures of my gorgeous offspring, you bet you’re gonna see some gorgeous offspring. We’re just going to let it all hang out over here, for better or for worse. Here’s to real, honest blogging! (Yaaaaaay!)

Third things third: Have you noticed the animal print trend happening lately? I follow a few style blogs and have really been loving the dose of animal prints in some recent outfits . . . whether it’s a big, look-at-me splash of leopard like in this adorable outfit from The Pretty Life Anonymous, or just a teensy touch tossed in, like the shoes paired with this look from Merrick’s Art, I’ve been enjoying the spunk and sass and flair that a little animal adds to an outfit. It seems to instantly perk up an outfit and give it more personality, which is always a good thing.

So I’ve had my eye out for cheap, cute animal prints lately and have been a little disappointed at my meager findings. I truly can’t overemphasize what a cheapskate I am—I decided against a $14 leopard print scarf the other day because I thought that was too much to spend for a scarf. I’ll always have meager findings as long as $14 for a scarf feels like a rip-off. A part of me knows that this is not an unreasonable price, but a louder, more obnoxious, penny-pinching part of me b****-slaps that part into silence. But at Joann’s the other day, I spotted a cute, lightweight, gauzy zebra print fabric in the red tag clearance fabrics—score! At $7 a yard, it didn’t seem like a fantastic bargain, but I figured I wouldn’t need much to make an animal print scarf for myself . . . I only bought 15 inches of it (which was plenty of fabric for a double-loop cowl/infinity scarf, and rang up to less than $3). Now, there are plenty of infinity scarf tutorials out there already, and you can google around and find them if you prefer a more in-depth, professional approach and finished project. Here was my issue with the tutorials I found:

1) Many just did not make sense to me. I’ll admit, I can be a bit of a dummy when it comes to following instructions, so maybe my pattern-following issues are just my own problem that needs fixing. But I read through quite a few infinity scarf tutorials and ended up scratching my head, going, “How does this work? Fold what? Sew where? Hand stitch? No sir.” We’re going for simplicity here.

2) They looked too labor-intensive. Honestly, I spent less than $3 on fabric; I’m not going to spend an hour sewing pieces by hand and hiding every seam and finishing every raw edge and perfectly ironing each fold. Sim.plic.it.y. I didn’t turn on the iron, and I was even moaning about having to get out the pins. I considered not swapping out the hot pink thread from my machine. Keepin’ it simple.

So this is my imperfect, one-seam-visible, 3-step infinity scarf tutorial. It seriously took like 15 minutes to make . . . I spent more time editing the pictures than sewing the stupid scarf. If you want a perfect, store-bought, professional-looking piece, I would encourage you to follow someone else’s instructions, because my version does end up with one seam line visible from the outside. I am 100% fine with this, especially since I’m keeping it myself. For 3 steps, $3, and 15 minutes, I will gladly live with a visible line of stitches. Here’s what I did to make my scarf:

Step 1: Fold fabric in half lengthwise (a hot dog fold . . . is that how your teachers taught you in elementary school?), pin along the long edge, and sew. If applicable, make sure you sew the right sides of the fabric together . . . I couldn’t tell if my fabric had a right or wrong side, so I didn’t worry about it.

Step 2: Turn this tube right side out (so the raw edge and seam will now be on the inside of the tube and the right side of the fabric, if you have one, will be on the outside) and fold one end of the tube’s raw edges to the inside. You can iron this fold if you aren’t feeling lazy. You guessed it . . . I was too lazy. $3 project, people. Minimal effort.

Step 3: Making sure your fabric tube is flat and not twisted (unless you want your scarf to have a twist, that might look neat!), bring the other raw open end of the tube up and tuck it inside of the folded end from the previous step. Pin the layers together, making sure you’re catching both folded layers and the inner tucked layers, and sew ‘er shut (this is your one visible stitch line).

Boom. (Would you be surprised if you knew I really say “boom” when I finish quick projects? I think that just bumped me up by about 10 notches on the cool scale.) Infinity scarfed. I think it looks rather fetching looped twice around the neck for a close fit:

But I also feel significantly more stylish than I really am wearing it long and belted over a simple sweater:

Low cost and even lower effort for a chic, stylish animal print scarf. I like it!

I keep meaning to make one (or many) of these scarfs, but then I would have to try to get access to my sewing machine, which I think has been taken over by yarn... I haven't seen it in a week, but I'm presuming it's still on my desk...

I'm addicted to these things. To scarves in general actually.It's like,Hi, I'm Laura, I'm wearing a tshirt and it probably has snot on it. But it's a nice tshirt, under the snot. Probably.and then add a scarf and BOOMHi, I'm Laura, and I'm accessorized and well-put-together. And you can't see the snot. Or at least I hope it's snot.

Super cute! And you just keep on being you. That is what makes this blog so fabulous. I like being difficult, which is why I didn't post on yesterdays (I read it yesterday...) post. Or maybe I just didn't feel like I had anything to contribute. Anywho, keep on keepin on and rockin that cute hairdo and scarf!

Thank you! That might be the only cute sweater I own ;-) I got it last winter (so a little over a year ago) on sale at JCPenney . . . it's one of those sweaters with the really long, drapey front panels, but I think it looks best with the long drapey parts crossed over and belted. I doubt they still have it now over a year later (especially since it was on clearance when I got it), but I think it's a keeper!

I have never been a scarf person. I keep seeing all the posts and so many people wearing them and they just look beautiful. Thanks for the tutorial, I'm inspired to make my own now. :) Did you just guess-timate on the length/amound of fabric you used? and about how wide is the finished scarf?

I am usually really slow to accept trends, but I'm fully on board with scarves! Such an easy way to add some style to a simple outfit.

I just guesstimated my fabric needs--the fabric was something like 48" or 50" in length on the bolt which seemed plenty long to make a good-sized infinity loop (and it was), so I just folded what looked like a regular scarf width and had the lady at the counter cut it where I pointed, which turned out to be 15". My seam allowance was something like 1/2" (I didn't measure), so it wound up being about 48-ish" in a loop and about 7-ish" wide (since it's folded double). It's not a super wide scarf--I tend to lose control of really big scarves, so I kept it a little smaller (plus it was cheaper that way). I hope that helps!

I am so happy I found your blog! I decided yesterday that I wanted to make an infinity scarf, then became incredibly confused because I chose a fabric with a wrong side... a little Googling later and this post saved me. I love that you kept the instructions simple and user-beginner-sewer friendly! Thanks :)